Pages

Live Like You Were Dying

I had intended to post a different Tim McGraw video here today, but that will have to wait for another post.

I found out last night that a fellow student in one of my college classes passed away last week. He was base jumping in another state and although he made the jump okay, something happened after that.

I didn't know this guy other than seeing him playing chess in the lobby of the Student Life building and then three times when he came into class. I never talked to him, but I know that I would have eventually. Not just because he was in my class, but because he wore a coat that said skydiving on the back of it (one of my interests). My husband said he knew him and that he was a nice guy, so he must have been.

Anyway, to get to the point, this 27 year old man died way too soon. I don't know why or how, but he's gone. In the blink of an eye, he's gone. I think about this a lot because (heaven forbid it should happen to me) I'm not ready. I have way too many things I want to do before I leave this earth.

This song really hits me each and every time I hear it because it reminds me that we all have such limited time here. Instead of crying about what we can't change about our lives, we should be living it to the fullest. I forget this quite often. And it is these small reminders (like the playing of this old song on the radio) and the big ones (like the death of a potential friend) that remind us to live.

I used to close out my personal messages on my website with the following line. I stopped for whatever reason, but I think I'll start again. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

2 comments:

I told my husband that I didn't know why this hit me so hard. I didn't even know the guy other than what I described in the post.

But I had intended to talk to him. I am such an introvert. I found myself wanting to wait a few weeks to get into the class groove and then I wanted to talk to him about his skydiving.

Anyway, the point I was trying to get across (and am not sure it all came out) is that he was doing something he loved to do. He was living his life.

I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I tell myself it was because he made the jump. I know there are a lot of things out there that are very dangerous. And as a mother of a preteen boy, I want to be around for him for a very long time.

But, when I'm seventy, I want to look back on my life and say that I did what I wanted to do. Sure, we may have regrets about some things. That's life. But I don't want one of those regrets to be that I was too lazy to get up off the couch.